In recent years poker has become very popular. Gaming establishments are increasingly offering poker rooms that include many live gaming tables where players can play against each other. In return for providing these gaming tables and services to the players, the casinos generally take a small percentage of the total amounts wagered in each hand. This percentage is generally referred to as the rake and the amount represents a fair return to the casino for providing these services to the players. Despite the current popularity of poker, many gaming establishments do not realize the full profit potential of the gaming tables because poker seats remain empty, because there is not enough advertised interest in the poker room, or because the games do not hold the player's interest over an extended period of time. Also, when the poker room is busy, players may be frustrated by having to wait in line in order to get a seat at the table.
In general, poker hands consist of five cards dealt from a 52 card deck. There are nine general categories of hands, ranked from highest to lowest, as shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1Ranking of Poker Hands by CategoryRankNameExample1Straight FlushK Q J 10 9 2Four of a KindJ J♥J♦J 3 3Full HouseA♥A♦A 6♦6 4FlushA J 8 6 2 5Straight8♦7 6 5 4 6Three of a KindQ Q♥Q♦6♦2 7Two Pair8♦8♥5♥5 2 8One PairK♦K 8 7 2♥9No PairA♥10 7♦5 3 
Within each category, hands are ranked according to the rank of individual cards, with an Ace being the highest card and a two being the lowest card. There is no difference in rank between the four suits of cards. All hands can be ranked in a linear ranking from highest to lowest. Because suits are all of the same value, however, there are multiple hands that have identical rankings. For example, there are four equivalent hands for each type of straight flush, four of a kind, or flush, there are over a hundred equivalent hands for each two pair variation, and there are over 1,000 equivalent hands for each type of no-pair hand.
Poker is characterized by rounds of card dealing and wagering. Numerous variations of poker exist, including Five Card Draw, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Hold'em (also called Texas Hold'em), Omaha (also called Omaha Hold'em), and Pai-Gow. The variations in these games generally differ in the manner in which cards are dealt and in the manner and frequency in which bets are placed. Various criteria may also be used to determine the winning hand, including highest ranking hand, lowest ranking hand (Low-Ball), and high and low hands each win half (High-Low).
In certain variations of poker, a round of play begins when each player has placed an initial bet, called the ante, into the pot. The term pot refers to the total accumulation of antes and wagers made during a particular game. However, in other poker variations, such as Texas Hold'em, only two players at a table make the initial bets, commonly referred to as blinds. These blinds include a large blind and a small blind. The large blind is typically twice the value of the small blind. In a blind based game, all players are eligible to play, even if they did not initially place the large blind or the small blind. After the players have anted or placed the blinds, depending on the game, each player eligible for play is dealt an initial set of cards.
The number of cards dealt depends on the particular variation of poker being played. For example, in Five Card Draw, each player is initially dealt five cards. In Texas Hold'em, Five Card Stud and Seven Card Stud, each player is initially dealt two cards. These cards are typically dealt face-down; however, depending on the game, some of the cards may be dealt face-up to the player. For example, in Five Card Stud, each player is initially dealt one card face-up and one card face-down. In Texas Hold'em, each player is initially dealt two cards face-down which are commonly referred to as the hole cards.
After the initial deal, a first round of betting begins, where the players have the opportunity to place wagers. If a player places a wager, that wager must be matched (i.e., called) or raised by each player that wants to remain in the game. A raise includes matching the previous wager and increasing the total bet. A player who does not match a bet drops out of the game or folds. A round of betting ends when either every player but one has folded, or when the highest bet or raise has been called by each remaining player such that each remaining player has wagered the same amount into the pot during the round.
Depending on the variation of poker being player, each game may have several rounds of wagering, each round of wagering generally preceded by dealing one or more cards. If two or more players remain after a particular round of wagering, either more cards are dealt, or there is a showdown, depending on the game variation being played. A showdown occurs when two or more players remain in a game after the last round of wagering has been completed for a particular round. A player wins a game of poker either by having the highest ranking hand when a showdown occurs, or by being the last remaining player in the game after all other players have dropped out, or folded. At a showdown, each player displays the player's hand to the other players. If two or more players have identically ranked hands that are the highest ranking hands, the pot is split evenly between them.
Gaming establishments have long recognized that progressive jackpots tend to increase excitement and hold a player's interest in a game. Recent developments in live gaming table technology include the incorporation of a progressive jackpot feature. For example, one system provides a live card game that includes a progressive jackpot feature, where a player becomes eligible to win the progressive jackpot by making an optional additional wager. The additional wager funds the progressive jackpot. Another known system provides for an optional progressive wager, where the gaming table includes a separate coin acceptor at each player position that is operable to receive an optional progressive bet. In another system, a gaming table includes an apparatus operable to receive the optional progressive game token and to control a jackpot meter. The apparatus is built into the game table and any number of tables can be networked together for a single progressive jackpot.
A common characteristic of all of the above approaches that include conventional progressive systems for live gaming tables, is the requirement that each player must place a separate optional progressive wager. Therefore, participation in the progressive jackpot feature is at the option of the player, and contributions are only made to the progressive jackpot when a player makes the optional wager. Furthermore, the variety of progressive table games is limited and they do not adequately reward the frequent players.
In addition to recognizing the value of progressive jackpots, gaming establishments have also recognized the value of building customer loyalty through identifying frequent customers and rewarding them for their patronage. These rewards are typically referred to as comping. To properly identify customers that are deserving of special comp rewards, automated player tracking technologies exist to accurately identify these individuals. The cumulative history of a particular player's gaming activity, which is included in a player profile, enables gaming establishments to target individual players with direct marketing promotions or customized compensation plans.
In existing player tracking systems, a player is issued a player identification card which has an encoded player identification number that uniquely identifies the player. Player tracking on gaming devices such as slot machines, is typically accomplished with a card reader mounted to the gaming device. When the player first sits down at a gaming machine, the player inserts the card into the card reader. The reader reads the player identification number off the card and communicates information through a network to a central computer regarding the player's subsequent gaming activity.
Subsequent systems have adapted the card reader technology to live gaming tables. Existing live gaming table tracking systems include magnetic stripe card readers mounted to the table for entering player identification information on the magnetic stripe cards. In certain of these systems, wagering information is entered by a pit boss using a touch screen mounted to the table. These systems require a manual data entry of the wagers, and thus do not fully automate data collection for player tracking.
Other systems have enhanced tracking systems for live gaming tables that incorporate chip identifiers and card identifiers. These technologies help to further automate the tracking and comping process. One example of an optical chip reading technology includes mounting a black and white CCD sensor into a reading turret placed in proximity to a player's wagering area. In this system, each wagering chip includes patterns of repeated coding around the periphery of the chip. The patterns are identifiable by the CCD sensor. Therefore, the gaming system is able to determine the amount of each wager by imaging all of the chips and associating the patterns with a chip value.
One example of a playing card identifier is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0171142 to Toshiyuki et al., which discloses a card data reader where the card data recorded on the back of the playing card will be read by an internal image sensor. Another example of tracking technology is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2002/0049085 to Richard et al. (“Richard”), which discloses a table monitor that automatically images the activity occurring at a gaming table. The Richard application describes an imaging system that makes a periodic comparison of captured images identifying player wagering, as well as the appearance, removal and position of cards and other game objects on the gaming table. Therefore, a card tracking system enables the casino to automatically track cards dealt to a player and wagering patterns, and store the information into memory.
Although gaming establishments are able to comp frequent players based on information obtained from tracking systems on live gaming tables, the gaming tables do not include progressive jackpot features. Also, the progressive jackpot features are not funded by a portion of the rake. Furthermore, gaming tables that include progressive jackpot features do not provide a jackpot award based, in part, on tracked cards and/or historical game play information obtained through a tracking system.
A need exists for a progressive jackpot system for live gaming tables that permits progressive jackpot awards while minimizing interference with the conventional play of the game by not requiring a separate progressive wager.
A need exists for new progressive jackpot features for live gaming tables where the jackpot features are, at least in part, related to player tracking information and where the jackpot award effectively reward (i.e., comp) a player for frequent play.